


The Tik Tok Challenge

by Starpony999



Series: Lila Take Downs [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:08:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25927897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starpony999/pseuds/Starpony999
Summary: Marinette has had enough of Lila's lies, especially after she decides to lie about Marinette's work.  Her exasperation is starting to seep into the rest of her life, including her life as Ladybug, Savior of Paris.  And Chat notices.   Together they decided to take down Lila once and for all with the very platform she chose to spread her lies: Tik Tok.A Lila salt fic with Alya sugar and a little bit of Chat sugar.
Series: Lila Take Downs [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1881781
Comments: 5
Kudos: 115





	1. The One Where Lila Lies

One of Jagged’s new songs had become TikTok famous. The sound already had tons of edits, a dance routine, and a tik tok challenge. Just about everyone in class had a TikTok, and knew about the new rage, even if most of them didn’t post on it.

Lila, for once in her life, didn’t have to lie about being famous. Granted it was Tik-Tok famous, but at least it was something. Her video of the challenge had shown up on the For You Page of everyone in class, except Marinette—who had purposefully blocked Lila’s account upon finding it—and Adrien—who didn’t have an account due to “privacy reasons”. Lila had over 100,000 followers, and the number was growing daily. Her video had gone viral. Especially after she claimed to have the original shirt from Jagged’s music video. She even showed the tag, which everyone had seen in the music video, in her follow up Tik-Tok.

Marinette groaned as Lila droned on and on about her new ideas for Tik-Toks. Marinette hasn’t seen Lila’s video, but something that kept coming up had bugged her. It sounded like the shirt Lila had was red. Marinette knew for a fact that shirt in the video was black, with red tipped sleeves. She had made it herself at request from Jagged, he wanted “a classic rock-n-roll look with the signs of love ripped away”. Yeah...He was oddly specific like that. It had been a bit of a bummer that the shirt was never shown in the video, other than the tips of the sleeves and the tag. But Marinette reminded herself she wasn’t looking for fame, she was just glad to have the income.

“Well, what do you think Marinette?” Lila asked “sweetly” from her seat, gaining the noirette’s attention.

“Hmm?” Marinette looked up from her notes.

“Of the shirt?”

Marinette noticed that Lila is pointing at the short she had on. It actually did look quite nice, but she wasn’t sure why she was being asked. “It looks good on you.” Marinette sighed, turning back to her notes.

“Can you believe she has the shirt from Jagged’s video?” Alya asked.

This caught Marinette’s attention. “I’m sorry?”

“Yeah! It’s the same color and knit exactly!” Rose exclaimed.

Marinette looked at the shirt again. It was similar to her shirt, but it was the wrong color. She wanted to tell her class that. She wanted to tell them all she made the shirt for Jagged, and that was not it. But her maman had told her not to brag. She was privileged. She was lucky. It wasn’t becoming of her to rub that in her friends face’s. So she stayed silent. She shook her head and went back to her notes. They had a quiz today, and Marinette really couldn’t afford to let her grades drop after getting grounded for during the Simon Says fiasco.


	2. The One Where Tikki Admits She Was Wrong

“Tikki. You can’t expect me to be nice to her.”

Tikki sighed. She honestly wasn’t sure herself if being nice to Lila would help lower her akumazations or not. After this last stunt, Marinette was running herself into the ground. Tikki could tell. Her special bond with her holder let her see and few Marinette’s emotions. There wasn’t a lot of feelings left. She had stopped caring about a lot of things. She had stopped going out of her way to make people happy. She had started snapping at Chat Noir in the suit. While she had always apologized afterward, it caused Chat to talk less and focus more. Tikki could sense that Plagg was worried, which meant Chat likely was too. Marinette was now only doing the bare basics of her life. She was keeping up appearances, smiling around actual friends and family, working on commissions, doing her schoolwork, taking down akuma as Ladybug, but otherwise she was just an empty shell. She slept a lot. Tikki was sure the poor girl was depressed. The last time she had seemed genuinely happy was when Jagged had asked for her help in person. And somehow Lila had taken that away from her too.

“No.” She finally said.

Marinette looked up at her kwami in surprise. She had honesty been expecting a pep talk, encouraging her to be perfect the good person she was.

“No, I don’t expect you to.” Tikki continued. “While I do expect you to be civil, I don’t expect you to go out of your way for her. All this pressure and lack of reward is not good for you. And I’m sorry I was encouraging it.” The tiny being gave Marinette a hug on her cheek. “Will you forgive me?”

Marinette smiled sadly and returned the hug as best she could. “Of course I forgive you Tikki. Thank you for being here to listen to me rant.”

—🐞—

Ladybug stood on top of building. She surveyed the scene, with Chat Noir by her side. He stayed quiet, afraid to upset the girl. Another akuma raged around the city. Ladybug knew it was either Lila or caused by Lila, since she had witnessed the events leading up to it, but she hadn’t yet determined which one had been akumatized.

“I can’t believe this liar.”

Chat Noir turned his head in surprise.

“This is the fith time she has either been akumatized or caused an akuma.”

Chat Noir wanted to say something, but he hesitated. “I guess you’re right.” He admitted finally.

Ladybug raised an eyebrow at that. “I honestly didn’t expect you to agree with me.”

Chat Noir scratched the back of his head. “Well, she’s the reason you’ve… I mean….”. He trailed off. “I just finally figured it out, I guess.”

Ladybug smiled. She gave Chat a hug and then a little scratch behind his cat ears. “I’m sorry Chat. I realize I’ve been on edge for awhile. I’m sorry I lashed out at you.” She looked him in the eyes. “And yeah, she is the reason I’ve been on edge, to put it lightly.”

Chat Noir suddenly had an idea. A way he could help His lady friend. “How about we stop this akuma, and then we stop all future Lila Akumas?”

Ladybug raised an eyebrow at that, her yo-yo in hand. “How?”

“We expose her, as superheroes. I have a friend who’s been keeping track of everything she’s said. It shouldn’t be too hard to take her down.”

The two superheroes shared a smile before heading off to face the akuma. “I’d like that, Chat. I’d like that a lot.”


	3. The One Where Chat Has A Plan

Chat paced around the Effie tower, waiting for His lady .... Bugginette ... Ladybug to show up. Chat sighed. He really liked giving people nick names, but ever since Ladybug had outright told him she didn’t like it, he had been actively trying to stop. Granted, it was a hard habit to break, after spending a year calling her by nicknames, but he was trying.

She had seemed fine with it before Lila. She even gave him nicknames back, which he preened at. They play flirted back in forth, and, for the most part, he had learned not to take it seriously. It had been a fun reprieve during battles. A little something extra that helped him focus. But with so much on her plate with whatever her personal life threw at her and the extra Akumas lately, it was just another distraction she didn’t need.

He looked down at the basket in hand. He had decided against flowers, since that would be too romantic. He hoped what he chose wouldn’t seem like he was trying to woo her—he wasn’t—but he had heard that chocolate was like magic for girls. Plagg had actually agreed and confirmed that statement....after his suggestion of cheese was blatantly denied three times.

Finally, right on time, Ladybug swung down on the platform beside him. The poor girl looked exhausted. Her eyes were only half open and they didn’t carry that sparkle they used to. They seemed dull and lifeless, in fact, her whole face and posture did. Chat noticed a distinct change when she saw him, and he began to wonder just how long she had been like this.

He quickly brought the basket towards his chest. He fumbled with it for a second, before offering it to m-Ladybug. “Here. I brought you some chocolates. I bought them from the best bakery in town.”

Ladybug chuckled softly at that, although Chat wasn’t sure why. Had he accidentally made a pun? He was trying to cut down on those too, but they came so naturally to him, sometimes he hadn’t noticed he had made one.

“So what’s your plan, exactly?” Ladybug asked after accepting the chocolates.

Of course! The whole reason they had met up tonight! Chat had asked her to meet up at a time when their civilian lives wouldn’t get in the way. He had started forming a plan after their conversation that morning and he wanted to share it with her, get her on board.

“Well, I know this liar personally—as a civilian”. He added before Ladybug could jump to conclusions. “Her name is Lila. After Oni-Chan, I have to say, I got suspicious. As a civilian I began compiling evidence against her, in case she tried to hurt someone I was close to.”

Ladybug nodded as she munched on her chocolates. She waved at him to continue.

“Since I don’t have any spe-cat-ular, excuse me, spectacular gadgets as a civilian like I do as Chat, I haven’t had any concrete way to actually expose her. Until...” He pulled out his baton, opening up to phone compartment. “Tiktok. Now I can’t see this as a civilian, due to...privacy reasons, but as Chat, I’ve followed her and noticed she has started posting her lies.” He showed her his screen, with a video of Lila, aka @.AdventureFox, in what appeared to be Abu. 

“Adventures with Lila, Part 12!” Lila intro’d on the TikTok, “For Spring Break, I went on a trip to Achu, to hang out with my friend Ali! Oops, I mean Prince Ali.” While she continued talking about her trip, the video showed pictures and videos of Achu, some of which had Lila in them, and one even of her and Prince Ali taking a selfie.

“She documents a ton of lies on this app. I think the key to exposing her is.. Oh what's it called..” He muttered. “Oh yes, dueting these videos with evidence to the contrary.”

Ladybug, to her credit, looked impressed. “I like it, only one problem.”

“Oh?”

“She could delete her videos.”

“Excellent point.” Chat rubbed his chin. “I kind of thought of that. I downloaded all the ones with obvious lies in them to my baton. Maybe we could convince A--That ladyblogger to put it up on her blog? Claim it’s about protecting others from potential akumas, as she seems to be a recurring source?”

Ladybug nodded. “That might work. Although from what I can tell, the ladyblogger is friends with Lila. It might be hard to convince her.”


	4. The One Where Ladybug Takes Pictures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug appears at a field trip to the ice rink

Ladybug and Chat decided to take Lila down methodically. They decided to create cloud accounts to store the evidence--whether it be photo, video, or audio--and share it with each other. They would start at the most recent video on Lila’s Tik-Tok.

“I don’t know for sure if this one is a lie. I guess it is, but I don’t know a lot about Jagged.” Chat said as he stopped the video from looping.

“Actually...” Ladybug spoke up, being careful with her words so as not to reveal too much about her identity. “..I happen to know who designed that shirt.”

“Perfect, than you can work on these first two videos. I’ll start working on the next one.” He pointed to the one that was posted beforehand. Seeing Adrien in the cover, Ladybug guessed it had something to do with modeling.

She wanted to say something akin to. ‘Good luck working with him, he always wanted to take the high road.’ But she kept her mouth shut. She figured that might end up revealing a little too much about her identity.

They said goodbye, promising to keep in touch between akuma attacks to continue gathering evidence. When they had each returned home, Plagg and Tikki gave their chosen phone numbers that would connect the two with their usual phones. Something about Kwami magic would keep it separate from their real phone numbers, but would still allow them to use their phones to communicate without having to transform.

Adrien almost leaped in excitement about getting His Lady’s phone number. When Plagg gave him a glare, he backed down and reminded himself that he recieved _Ladybug’s_ phone number for _professional_ reasons only. There was still a good chance she wouldn’t see anything he texted right away because magic. Plagg has emphasized that Tikki and him were taking precautions with the texting so that a notification wouldn’t give away their identity. Adrien sighed as he reclined on his bed. He had to remind himself if he truly loved ~~his~~ Ladybug, her feelings came before his own. It was definitely going to be a tough journey ahead, but he was prepared to face it.

Marinette couldn’t adequately express her thankfulness to Tikki when she recieved the news. Having to transform every time she needed to text her partner was not something she had been looking forward to. She asked Tikki what she should put it in her phone as, so she would know who was messaging her, but no one else would be able to figure it out. When Tikki suggested she put down the name of Chat Noir’s Kwami, Marinette squeezed her with glee. “Plagg. Perfect.”

——

The plan was simple. While everyone was out in the ice rink, Marinette would sneak out and transform into Ladybug. She would use her yo-yo to take pictures of the tag on Lila’s shirt, who had promised to bring it on their skating adventure. For once, the girl had decided to follow through on her promise. Ladybug supposed that Lila thought it was the one lie that couldn’t be disputed. She had to use the tag in her tik tok after all. She had basically already shown the whole thing off.

It was weird that Lila hadn’t decided to wear it. She had worn it to class just last week. Plus, it was a warm sweater, it would be useful in the ice rink. Ladybug shrugged it off. It made her mission that much easier.

Ladybug found the shirt left on one of the booths. Thankfully nobody was around at the moment, so she took the opportunity to lay it out on the table. She put her yo-yo in camera mode and started taking pictures of it. Especially the tag. While it was visible in the tik tok, it hadn’t been incredibly clear. Plus, she only showed one side of the tag. The back side of the tag clearly said that Lila’s shirt was designed by Gabriel Agreste. Good. Now all she needed was proof MDC made Jagged’s shirt. That wouldn’t be too hard to prove, seeing as MDC and Jagged we’re close friends of hers.

The sound of doors opening and people chattering caught Ladybug’s attention. She quickly placed the shirt back where she had found it and raced out of there. She hoped no one payed much attention to her, but it didn’t matter much. She got what she needed.


	5. The One Where Alya Finds Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya follows Ladybug to get some information, but what she finds is not what she expected.

Alya was the first one out of the ice rink for lunch. She was getting really cold, and unfortunately Nino wasn’t here to offer her his coat. She pushed open the doors to find the one and only Ladybug rushing away from their table. What was she doing here? Alya whipped out her phone from her pocket, hit the record button on her camera app, and then raced after the mysterious heroine.

Alya had trouble keeping up, only managing to catch the red blur as it dodged in and out of rooms. Alya slowed to a stop when she found a room with an open window. She looked outside for any indication of where Ladybug had gone. Nothing. She stopped her recording and leaned against the window frame. She pulled up her video and watched it play. Why had Ladybug been at the ice rink? Had there been an akuma? An amok? Had she missed a new supervillain?

She searched the Internet. There was nothing. Maybe Ladybug was on a reconnaissance mission. Was Hawkmoth secretly somebody in her class? Or one of the teachers? Maybe that was why Madame Bustier had encouraged Chloe. No… that wouldn’t make sense. She got akumatized into Zombie Zou.

Alya began her walk back. Mrs. Bustier would probably give her a lecture if she found out that Alya had just been wandering the halls of the ice rink. She didn’t mind Mrs. Bustier’s lectures, but there was a reason it was so refreshing and so easy to tune her out when Lila had a story to share.

Rumble.

The sudden sound caused Aya to whip her head up from her phone. The doors around her were all closed.

Except one.

At first glance it looked closed, but Alya was a reporter. She gave everything a second glance and realized one of the doors was open a smidge. Alya walked to the door and slowly pushed it open. There was little light in the room, but she could just make out a small figure. It looked like Marinette. So this is where she left off too. Alya was about to say something, when she heard a tiny voice that most certainly did not belong to Marinette. 

“Don’t worry, Marinette! You’re doing great! I’m so proud of you, standing up for yourself like this.”

Alya found that the small voice belonged to an even smaller being, floating in the air. Was that a Kwamii? There had to be an akuma if Ladybug had decided to give Marinette a miraculous. How was no one else aware of it?

“Are you sure, Tikki?” Marinette asked, “I feel like I’m only using it to my own advantage. I feel like I’m abusing my powers when I’m Ladybug.”

The Kwamii, Tikki, responded “You are bringing justice and balance, Marinette. Just like Ladybug is supposed to.”

“Marinette is Ladybug?”

Alya didn’t realize she had said that aloud until she saw Tikki dash into Marinette’s purse. Marinette whipped around. 

“Alya?! Wha–What makes you think that?”

Alya leans against the door frame. Marinette was Ladybug. Ladybug is Marinette. Marinette chose her to be a superhero with her. Marinette was the reason she became Rena Rouge. Marinette was the one giving her exclusive interviews…..Lila claimed Marinette and her were best friends. 

No wonder Marinette had been so sure Lila was lying from the start. Lila had lied about her.

“I need to sit down.” And down she sat. Alya slide down the door frame until she was level with the floor. 

Marinette sighed and came over to her friend. “I know it’s a lot to take in. You shouldn’t have found out this way.”

A beat passes.

“I am so so sorry, Marinette. I just completely disregarded not only what you were saying, but also ignoring how you were feeling! I mean even if your accusations were baseless, which they obviously aren’t, I still should have taken your feelings into account. You didn’t feel safe around her, and I kept trying to force you to be around her. I am soooo sorry Marinette.”

The noirette leaned over and gave her friend a hug. Tikki floated out of her purse, and in front of the pair. Marinette giggled, and held out her palm for Tikki to land on. “This is Tikki, Tikki, this is my best friend, Alya.”


	6. The One Where Alya Joins the Cause

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya has a crazy idea.....just like every other episode.
> 
> Except this one might work.

With a little prodding from Tikki and Alya, Marinette relayed everything that had happened with Lila. The stunt with Ladybug, the bathroom confrontation, the expulsion, everything. 

Alya shook her head. She couldn’t believe her ears. Everything Marinette had gone through…

“I’m going to help.”

“I-er-what?”

“i’m going to help.” Alya repeated. “I’m going to help you and Chat take Lila down, and make her pay for all her lies.”

“No!” Marinette protested, “Lila’s smart, and cunning. She’ll attack you next, and we’ll be back at square one. Or even worse, she’ll drag you down with her!”

Seeing Marinette on the verge of a downward spiral, Alya grabbed her friend’s shoulders and looked her dead in the eye. “It doesn’t matter. I left you behind once, I’m not going to do it again. I’ll be careful. I won’t confront her. But I’m going to help you guys get evidence, and I know just the way to start.”

—-

“Lila! Lila!’ Alya called as they ran into school the next day. She held her phone up in the landscape position, obviously recording something. “I just had the best idea!”

Lila smiled, and Alya had to wonder how genuine it was. “What is it, Alya?”

“You know how the Ladyblog is pretty famous right?”

“Yeah…?”

“And I’ve only gotten one or two interviews with her.”

Lila nodded, unsure of where this was headed.

“Well, I just realized if I can create a famous blog with only a few first-person references, what about a blog that was centered around someone who has done so much, who I can actually get first person coverage from!?”

“That sounds like an amazing idea.” Lila agreed, although she still did not understand what Alya was getting at.

“So you’ll do it? You’re okay with it?”

“Okay with…what exactly?”

“The Lila’s Amazing Adventure blog, of course!”

A flash of uncertainty flashed across Lila’s face before quickly being replaced with a smile. “Of course! Although, I’m so busy all the time, I don’t know if I’ll be able to give you sit down interviews all the time.”

Alya smirked inwardly, Marinette had predicted Lila would react like this. That’s why they had planned ahead. “Oh, don’t worry about it! I might ask you for a full blown interview here and there, but you talk about your adventures all the time in class! I’ve already written a bunch of them down. I just needed your permission! You’re the best, Lila!” Alya gave her ‘friend’ a hug and then raced off into class, leaving a slightly stunned Lila behind. 

Just what had the brunette agreed to?


	7. The One Where Lila is Trapped in Her Own Web

Lila sat in the middle of her room, papers strewn across the floor. Several of these papers were screenshots of the “Amazing Adventure” blog, along with screenshots of her own Tik-Toks. Right in front of her was this cute planner Marinette had given her a couple of days ago as part of an apology present. 

Oh how she wished Marinette had never apologized. First, the noirette had issued an apology to the whole class for treating Lila as she had. Then she had apologized to Lila 1-on-1. Alya might have been in the next room, but still, Lila didn’t think the girl would have the guts to address her like that after their last encounter. Over the next few weeks, Marinette had started not only including Lila in on gatherings, but also planning them specifically around any of her supposed trips. Tension was rising as the famous Marinette parties became rarer because of Lila’s ‘busy’ schedule. Sometimes Marinette even planned for some of the girls to come support her at charity events or auditions. It was getting harder and harder to make up excuses or explain why they never crossed paths.

Lila was pretty sure they had started to have hang-outs and other get-togethers without her at this point. She pretended she didn’t mind, but had dug herself deeper into her own hole when she began to tell everyone what she had done over the weekend. Always adding a cliffhanger turned out to be her downfall.

“And Niall asked me if I could come over again next month!”

“Oh. So you won’t be able to come to my birthday party, will you?” Rose asked, all sweet and sad like. 

Red flags went up in the back of Lila’s mind. She already saw Alya typing away on her new tablet, no doubt recording her latest adventure. She really needed to start using fake names, just in case any famous people actually read Alya’s blog. Or maybe she could sweet talk the brunette into using fake names to ‘protect their privacy.’ Rose was still staring at her with those big blue eyes.

“I’m sure I’ll be able to make it! I’ll reschedule with Niall if it falls on the same day.”

Her day was pretty much ruined after that. And all because Alix had to go and crack a joke that had all of the class laughing, except for her. Then, Alya asked if Lila would be there this weekend for Nino’s film debut. Before she could respond, Marinette had piped up and reminded Alya that Lila had promised Clara that she would help behind the scenes for her next music video that weekend.

Lila shuffled around the papers in front of her once more. When had she said that? Why had she said that? Did her mom plan something for that weekend, so she needed a good excuse? Had some rando asked her on a date that weekend? Thanks to Marinette her life was ruined. And it was worse than before the noirette apologized.

Finally, something clicked. She pulled up TikTok on her phone and went to one of her more recent videos. She scrolled through the comment section until she found what she was looking for. User @srndpty had asked if Lila could bring Jagged Stone and come to her birthday party. Lila had replied, saying that she couldn’t because of an upcoming music video shoot.

But how did.... oh no.

Lila opened up Ayla’s new blog and scrolled back to the week she had posted that video. Indeed, Alya had made a blog post about it, even going so far as to find another source for the release date of Clara’s next music video.

Lila was screwed.


End file.
